Navimag to Torres Del Paine:  5M Seas, 50 knot winds, incredible views, an extra three days… and more

March 13, 2015
by noutlaw
comments 5
Chile
Arrival in Puerto Natales, Spectacular

Arrival in Puerto Natales, Spectacular

Well we have been offline for almost a week now.  We took a ship from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales Chile – which goes down the coast “inland” then goes offshore for a stretch of about 14 hours and basically in the sourthern ocean.  The boat trip was spectacular, however due to weather we were delayed leaving, delayed in route and delayed getting in.  After experiencing the ocean side of the trip I’m glad the captain waited to cross the ocean exposed part.  On the trip coming up they had 10+ meter seas (40 ft) and 60+ knot winds – going into the sea and into the winds – i spoke to the medic onboard and every passenger was sick.

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Teatro del Lago

March 6, 2015
by Gavin O.
comments 2
Chile

 

Teatro del Lago Frutillar

Teatro del Lago Frutillar

So, there is this really cool Theater on the water that really speaks out to me. On the first of March,  we went and saw a graduating concert for the students who were enrolled and were presented their Diploma from College of the arts. After all, this theater is also big on educatio. This theater is well known throughout the world. I mean, people have come from every continent in the world to play at this theater. And this is not just for symphonies. It can be used for Ballet, Opera, Bands, Symphonies, Plays and more. And the nice thing is about this theater, is that it has two auditoriums. One really big, and one not so big.  We saw our concert in the smaller one, which has a very nice view of the lake and Osorno Volcano.

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Getting to Back to Chile – Frutillar; Studebaker Museum; Submarine, 3500 Year Old Tree; and more…

March 5, 2015
by noutlaw
comments 4
Chile
Frutillar Chile - view from the beach. A great musical oriented place.

Frutillar Chile – view from the beach. A great musical oriented place.

Well it’s been about a week since we did a real post about what we have been up to.  We successfully crossed back from Argentina to Chile without much of an issue.  Taking the car across the border was my biggest concern, however we have our title and US registration and that has been all that’s needed.  It seems with vehicles in South America they go off of your plate tag and not the acctual VIN # – so you have to have paperwork (registration) that shows the vehicle tag, your name and vin #.  One guy at the border going into Argentina said “very good paperwork” to me – so I think we are doing well by the customs people.  Nobody asks to see insurance paperwork at the border either.  But insurance is mandatory.  When crossing back into Chile they made us take everything out of the car, off the top,, etc and put it on a table, then they looked at a couple of bags and said “you’re good” … so loaded the car back up and off we went.

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Refugio Fray, Cerro Cathederal, Playing Tourist & another great meal

February 27, 2015
by noutlaw
comments 5
Argentina
The view at the top of Refugio Fray- Cerro cathederal in Bariloche- well worth the effort

The view at the top of Refugio Fray- Cerro cathederal in Bariloche- well worth the effort

Refugio Fray – Cerro Cathederal – So we did another very big hike the other day.  We hiked to Refugio Fray which sits atop Cerro Catehderal and is a highlight of our trip – from trekking anyway.  It’ a longer hike 24KM, with about 600 vertical feet that you do mostly in the last two kilometers.  Once you get to the top you find other people who are generally climbing and camping at the refugio.  In this section of the park there are many refugio’s that you can hang out at – have some supplies and generally there are other people there.  It also had a very nice lake, ice cold water and some places to hang out and relax after the long hike in.  We met some people from Kansas/California, England, Germany, etc.   For the most part our boys are generally the only kids doing these longer hikes – which is great for them – and they get interesting reaction from others when they are coming down and others are coming up.   Read More

Hiking Playa Munoz; Fondue Dinner; a Mountain Glacier Sailing on the Lake

February 24, 2015
by noutlaw
comments 5
Argentina
Taking a break after a great hike into the beach. I'll even plug LaSportiva shoes are awesome on this trip

Taking a break after a great hike into the beach. I’ll even plug LaSportiva shoes are awesome on this trip

It’s been a busy couple of days here in Bariloche Argentina. We have until Saturday here, then will cross back into Chile and stay in a place called Frutillar until Friday, when we board the Navimag ship for a 4 day excursion to the tip of South America. They can accommodate our car on the ship so we are going one way and ending up at Puerto Natales – so more on that excursion in a couple of weeks.

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Bariloche: St. Bernards, Skyway Tram, Hiking Refugio Lopez & a good meal

February 19, 2015
by noutlaw
comments 6
Argentina
IMG_3236

Hayden looking out from the refugio after a long hike and taking it in. I love these shots where the kids dont know they are being photographed.

 

So we have now been in Bariloche for about 5 days. Honestly the first couple we have been in reaction mode dealing with stuff from our incident in Pucon. However, we have now submitted everything to insurance and they are doing their stuff on their end. Note to anyone travelling, it’s a good idea to take pictures of any/all items taken on a trip. One of our issues is my camera which we don’t have evidence of purchase and your online credit cards don’t go back far enough to record the information. So you sort of get in a pinch, now that everything is digital is great, however not being able to go back further than 18 months is a concern… okay back to the trip.
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Off to Argentina. First stop, San Martin de Los Andes

February 16, 2015
by Gavin O.
comments 6
Uncategorized
The road to bariloche

The road to bariloche

So, off to Argentina we go. Our first long term location, is Bariloche, Argentina. We were looking at maps, and we realized that the one day drive, would be something like, 10 hours. Not with the border crossing, of course. Our plan was to get across the border, and find a town to stay the night in. We found…..San Martin De Los Andes, Argentina. Perfect. We had found our way to Argentina. We set off a little while later. After an hour or so of smooth pavement, we hit some road work. I would say it spanned 5 miles. Paving the road, blasting rock, and drilling and digging made quite a show. Some signs made us think, ” oh no” . They were over exaggerating it quite a bit.

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Ugh! Robbed in Pucon – we are ok.

February 15, 2015
by noutlaw
comments 12
Argentina / Chile / Uncategorized
Where is CSI Pucon? The boys could get prints for you...

Where is CSI Pucon? The boys could get prints for you…

So we had been staying in this great spot in Pucon called Romance del Lago – which was excellent up until Wednesday when the ugly side of the world reared its head and sort of slapped us back into reality.  We left our house around 4:30, came back at 8:30 to find a window wide open.  Yup, we got robbed.  At first you don’t believe it, then you realize what you lost and get really upset.  The kids were devistated as they also lost things.  Please note that we think this place is very safe and the owners are making improvements so that this never happens again.

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